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First Edition News for June 21, 2004

Morale boost for Ullrich

In winning the final
stage and the overall classification of the Tour de Suisse, Jan Ullrich
(T-Mobile) is firmly on track for the Tour de France, which starts in
less than 14 days time. The German inflicted an agonising defeat on home
favourite Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval), beating him by 42 seconds in the
TT which gave Ullrich the overall victory by just 1 second.

"I had hopes for the time trial and was aiming for the victory, but
I did not expect that I would pull back the 41 seconds on the general
classification," said Ullrich, who wore the gold jersey for the first
six stages before Jeker took it from him in Stage 7. "When I was under
way I didn't believe I would succeed. At the beginning, the wind blew
from behind and the parcours was not as hard as I thought. Now I'm pleased
with my win, because I have fought also a little for Vinokourov in this
race - we all miss him. To win the Tour de Suisse is a great highlight."

With two weeks to go before the start of the Tour, Ullrich was very happy
with this morale boost. "That was the perfect preparation and another
push for the motivation in the direction of the Tour," he said. "I have
always said that the Tour de France is the most important for me. Thus
I have put everything else at a lower level."

Last year, Ullrich finished 7th in the Tour de Suisse, losing 2'27 to
winner Alexandre Vinokourov. His performance in this year's race is a
marked improvement from 2003, especially in the mountain stages. "In the
hard stages I definitely noticed how I was improving more and more. I
was always sure that my form was on the right track, but I did not expect
these successes at this point in time."

Defending Motorola

By Jeff Jones and Tim Maloney

In David Walsh and Pierre Ballester's latest book, LA Confidential,
Lance Armstrong's former team of Motorola comes under fire with allegations
that there was doping going on within the team. New Zealander Steven Swart's
testimony that he felt pressured to take illegal drugs such as EPO is
one of many that is used to try to paint five-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong
in a bad light.

Swart was a member of Armstrong's Motorola team in 1994 and 1995, but
was let go from the team at the end of 1995. His entire testimony in LA
Confidential is tinged with bitterness. "At the end when they decided
they didn't want me on the team, I said goodbye to the guys...Lance was
in the bathroom and he just stuck his hand out the door," recalled Swart.

One of Swart's former teammates at SEFB told Cyclingnews that
Swart was aware of doping practices well before he came to Motorola. In
the book, Swart says that while riding for SEFB in 1988 he did the Tour
de Suisse, where he finished 13th on GC. "We went into a hotel room and
all the products were there," he said. "It wasn't really the first time
we did this, it was the culture. I didn't know what I was taking at the
time."

When he joined Motorola under the direction of Jim Ochowicz, Swart said
that he began to feel pressured to get results, even though the team management
was against and organised doping program. "We wanted to continue to race
for the team," said Swart. "We liked the environment. In one way it was
good that we weren't obliged to dope. No-one forced us to do it. We knew
it was against things, but in the end we had to be in or out. We had to
do what other teams were doing or we had to quit the sport."

According to Swart, some riders in Motorola took the decision in 1995
to start a program of doping to take advantage of EPO. "The way I remember,
we didn't talk about it a lot in 1994. Sure, 1994 wasn't a good year and
we really asked ourselves to do our best for our sponsors. Phil Anderson
and Andy Hampsten left the team in 1994, while new riders came in: Fabio
Casartelli, Andrea Peron and Kevin Livingston. We figured we had to regroup
to fix the situation."

Team manager Jim Ochowicz preferred to think that the solution (to a
lack of results) depended on him. "If only the riders would train better,
race smarter and have more determination," said Ochowicz, who refused
to ask the team to turn to illegal drugs.

Motorola team doctor Massimo Testa was also against a doping program.
"I was not in agreement with all the things that people were saying we
should take. I wanted to discourage the utilisation of these things [like
EPO]," said Testa in LA Confidential.

One of Swart's former Motorola teammates (in 1994) Brian Smith was surprised
at Swart's comments, but denied that there was pressure from the team
management to take drugs. "If that's true it would have been an unbelievable
change in the culture of the team," Smith told Scotland on Sunday.
"When I signed for the team we all had physiological tests and blood tests
and those were sent away. We had a training camp in Tuscany, then we travelled
to Cannes, where we prepared for the Trofeo Laigueglia, which Lance had
won the previous year. That was to be my first race for Motorola.

"But the day before the race I was called into a room with Jim Ochowicz
and Hennie Kuiper, the team directors, and Massimo Testa, the team doctor,
and told that I couldn't race. They said that my blood tests had shown
a testosterone level of zero, which meant either that my body had stopped
producing it, or that I'd been getting it artificially. I had stubble,
so I was obviously getting it from somewhere.

"It was made very clear to me that Motorola was a massive sponsor, and
that they condemned any association with drugs. I had no idea what had
happened, but a second test cleared me and I was able to start racing.
But it showed me the team was clean. I saw nothing untoward in the year
I was there, and that included riding the Giro d'Italia.

"As far as I'm concerned, he [Testa] was straight down the line. There
was certainly EPO around in cycling, but I am very confident that Testa
was absolutely clean. I know that Swart has said they started doping in
1995, but, based on my experience and the fact that Testa was there until
1996, I find it very hard to believe."

Di Luca speaks out

By Tim Maloney, European editor

After his Saeco teammate Eddy Mazzoleni refuted the contents of leaked
cell-phone transcripts recently published by French newspaper Le Monde,
Danilo Di Luca spoke out about the matter. "There is absolutely no truth
to any of these allegations", said an indignant Di Luca from his home
in Spoltore, Italy, where he's preparing for the Italian championships
and upcoming Tour De France. "These are just insinuations. There is no
concrete proof of anything."

Di Luca is allegedly recorded speaking to a Dr. Santuccione in mid-January
and mid-March 2004 about health related matters which the Rome prosecutors
have unearthed in an ongoing investigation called "Oil For Drugs".

Di Luca's managers Johnny and Alex Carrera of A&J Sport As Image sent
a further communication to Cyclingnews where they explained that
"Di Luca was checked at the Acquaacetosa labs in Rome and all the controls
showed normal values."

Referring to the telephone conversations that were allegedly taped on
Wednesday, March 17th, 2004, three days before Milano-San Remo, Di Luca's
managers pointed out some sloppy journalism by Le Monde's, noting
that the Le Monde piece "got the dates wrong; Di Luca wasn't calling Dr.
Santuccione six days before the race as stated, but three days before."

Di Luca and Mazzoleni have both strongly denied any involvement with
doping and with the Tour De France just 13 days away, both Saeco men are
hoping that the leaked reports that Le Monde continue to flog go
away fast.

McCartney heads for Athens

In an action packed final three laps of the US Men's Olympic Trials,
Jason McCartney (Health Net p/b Maxxis) took out the win with a very timely
late move, riding solo to victory and towards Athens as a member of Olympic
team. McCartney joins George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong (US Postal Service
p/b Berry Floor), Tyler Hamilton (Phonak Hearing Systems) and Bobby Julich
(CSC) in the five member team who will line up in for the USA in Athens
in August.

McCartney, who started racing again six years ago after having a few
years off the bike, has proved himself this year to be a classy rider
with a talent for making the most of timely opportunities. His victory
in stage five of Tour de Georgia earlier this year earned him a name as
a strong and gutsy rider and today's effort confirmed it. At the end of
the race, he couldn't believe the way things panned out for him today.
"Maybe a month from now it will sink in that I'm going to the Olympics."

To top it off, McCartney suffered bad luck during the race and wasn't
feeling like today was his day at all. "I had a broken spoke during the
race and my brakes were rubbing so I thought my race was over," he
said. "Towards the end after cramping and having the chase back on
after mechanicals, I wasn't feeling too good. I told John [Lieswyn] that
I didn't have it today so I was going to try to set it up for him. I went
once and he came with me, then when I went again, they hesitated and I
just kept going. It wasn't until 2km to go that I thought I could win
it."

Car drives into Ster Elektrotoer peloton

The issue of rider safety within the confines of a professional cycling
race has been raised again after an accident occurred in Friday's second
stage of the Ster Elektrotoer. The stage, which was run in wet conditions
around Valkenburg, was won by Relax-Bodysol's Preben Van Hecke who finished
with a 3'58 lead over Servais Knaven (Quick.Step-Davitamon) and Jakob
Piil (CSC). But just as Knaven and Piil had attacked on the Bemelerberg
in pursuit of Van Hecke, a motorist had ignored stop signs on the Bemelerberg
and driven into the peloton, injuring several including Steven de Jongh
(Rabobank) and Sebastien Rosseler (Relax-Bodysol), both of whom abandoned.

Piil and Knaven continued on, oblivious to the carnage behind them while
Rabobank's Michael Boogerd called on the peloton to neutralise the race,
which left the breakaways free to finish the stage in front on the Cauberg.
In theory, Knaven would have taken over the leader's jersey as he started
the day on the same time as Piil, only 1'10 behind his teammate and leader
Tom Boonen. But the race jury ruled that all riders that were in the peloton
when Knaven and Piil attacked would be given the same time and would only
lose 10 seconds to the pair, which was the gap between them when the accident
happened. Thus, Boonen kept the leader's jersey until his teammate Nick
Nuyens took it over in stage 3.

Death of Charly Grosskost

Former French pro Charly Grosskost has died, aged 60. The winner of
a Tour de France prologue, nine time French champion in the individual
pursuit and a silver medalist in the World Championships in the same discipline,
was hit by a car after crashing while out riding with friends in Strasbourg
on Saturday, June 19.

In addition to his palmares, Grosskost was also a member of Jacques
Anquetil's winning Tour de France team on several occasions. After he
retired, he sold bicycles in Strasbourg.